


Quoth the raven, "Gay"

by HelloPotato



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Dex is asking for a friend, F/F, did Dante know about lesbians?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 12:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17725427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelloPotato/pseuds/HelloPotato
Summary: Up until this point in her life Dex has been able to say, without caveat, that she doesn’t reallygetpoetry.Sure, she read the requisite Shakespeare for high school English, and didn’t mind it all that much. She definitely whined about it less than some of the boys in her class did, even though she also would have preferred Macbeth over Romeo and Juliet. Although that was more because the whole child-marriage thing bummed her out than because she hated poetry and romance in general.Also, Romeo and Juliet? Not that fucking romantic, as it turns out. Everyone ends up dead at the end.





	Quoth the raven, "Gay"

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for medieval homophobia, jokes about sex, swearing. A 'canto' is like a short chapter.

Up until this point in her life Dex has been able to say, without caveat, that she doesn’t really _get_ poetry.

Sure, she read the requisite Shakespeare for high school English, and didn’t mind it all that much. She definitely whined about it less than some of the boys in her class did, even though she also would have preferred Macbeth over Romeo and Juliet. Although that was more because the whole child-marriage thing bummed her out than because she hated poetry and romance in general.

Also, Romeo and Juliet? Not that fucking romantic, as it turns out. Everyone ends up dead at the end.

The point is, she doesn’t have anything against poetry as a concept. It’s just never really been her thing. Some people can read a poem and find so much meaning in it, and honestly, good for them. But for her, leaves are red because they’re red, or because seasons change. She’s always been a bit too literal for some of the more poemy-poems that Nursey has a habit of reading out loud in their shared room, sprawled across the carpet like a ship in the middle of a sea of books and paper.

When she tried to explain this to Nursey, she patted her on the shoulder and said “you’re just grounded, dude, got both feet planted”. In the spirit of their new truce, this was not meant as criticism (Dex thinks).

So Dex has no idea how she ended up in a Medieval Literature class with Nursey this semester, except for the fact that she has gen eds to fill and she’s apparently a massive pushover now that she and Nursey are finally getting along. The class isn’t terrible - they have a lot of assigned reading, which eats into her coding time a bit, but it’s actually pretty fun. She and Nursey do their reading for this class together, and they make a lot commiserating eye-contact and occasionally snicker over some of the more ridiculous shit that medieval writers come up with.

For the past few weeks they’ve been studying Dante. She likes this sort of stuff, understands things better when the poem is telling her a story. Their tutorials have been good so far too, mostly informal discussions and her classmates making fun of Dante for his obvious hero-worshipping of Virgil (“Gay,” Nursey whispers) and how bitter he is about being exiled from Florence (which, fair enough, she would be too).

They’re supposed to break off into groups of three and talk about their latest reading. This week’s stuff was sort of messed up, Dex thought, even for Dante. There were all these men wandering around naked in a desert while the sky rained fire, and one of Dante’s old friends was there, _which_ , good thing the guy was already dead when the Inferno was written, because (as Chowder would say) torturing your friends in hell is _so_ not buddies.  

She’s in a group with Nursey and another girl called Marie. Marie squints up at the whiteboard where their tutor has written out the day’s discussion prompts, because she’s nearsighted and always forgets her glasses.

_What do you think the unnamed sin is that is being punished in Canto XV?_

“Sodomy, probably,” she says, toying absently with the ends of her headscarf. “Although I read that some scholars didn’t want to acknowledge that sort of thing – “

“ – or the fact that Dante was probably gay as hell and repressing it,” Nursey adds, rolling her eyes.

“That too. So these scholars tried to make a case that the sin in this canto was writing literature in a language that wasn’t the writer’s mother tongue.”

Dex frowns. “Why would that be a sin?”

“Who knows?” Marie shrugs. “Something to do with the Church? Always is with this guy.”

Nursey snorts in agreement and leans back in her chair. She’s wearing her hair out today, and it cascades over her shoulders in a waterfall of dark curls. Dex, who shucked off her flannel about ten minutes into the lesson, can feel the ends of her hair brush against her bare arm whenever Nursey turns her head. It’s sort of distracting.

“What I want to know,” Nursey says, “is where all the women are in this canto. If it’s about the gays burning in hell, where are my lesbians at?”

Now Dex is snorting, too. “I don’t think they knew about that back then. Like, considering what sex must have been like – “

Nursey laughs outright. “ _Dex_ – ”

“ – I mean, would they have even known what two girls did together – “

“ – Dex, _oh my God_ – ”

“ – it always makes me feel bad for their wives,” she finishes, resting her chin in her hand. Marie and Nursey both collapse into giggles, Nursey dropping her head down onto her notebook while she fights to get herself under control.

Their tutor turns to them with a sort of resigned expression on her face.

“Care to share with the class?” she asks.

They all decline in between fits of laughter. Eventually they manage to settle down and get to work, Dex opening her beat-up old laptop to note down their answers to the discussion prompts. Nursey kicks her gently under the table to get her to look back up.

“What?” she asks quietly, mindful of their tutor moving between the rows of desks a few feet away. 

Nursey smiles and nods at her laptop, where the little rainbow sticker that Bitty gave her is stuck to the lid. She raises one eyebrow, like, _that for you?_

Dex grins and kicks her back in response.

“Gay,” Marie mutters under her breath.

**Author's Note:**

> All poetry is good poetry! That being said, I'm a bit of a Dex. It's really good, but...I don't necessarily...get it? Teach me, wise poets. Also, shout out to Marie, who had to put up with their shenanigans all semester. The real MVP.


End file.
